India must have design culture: CII

New Delhi: Product design has to be focused around customer care and concepts should be driven by the market, especially when customer perceptions are changing and product life cycles have been shortened.

At a seminar on “New Product Development Tools: CAD–CAM–RP–CAE” organized by CII experts from the industry deliberated on the design culture prevalent in the country and the kind of potential it had. Cost to customer, style and right time to market a product were identified as key elements that need to be factored in while designing a product.

India must develop the design culture in India, said Professor L K Das, Head – IDDC, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He emphasized need for HRD and for Indian industry to invest on design manpower as much as it spends on designing software and packages. It needs to fasten up the process of developing design characteristics and entrepreneurship.

Critical areas that need to be developed

* India can be a key contributor to the prototype business with a current growth of 37%: N Venkatesh, ANSYS SW Ltd.

* Companies must have access to technology and people who implement technology to reach users.

* Simultaneous engineering will reduce time for developing prototypes and enhance ability to create efficient products.

* Designing technology must reduce time taken for the product to reach the market from the concept stage.

* Initial quality control in design stage is important and first three months crucial for any original equipment manufacturer to ensure zero tolerance of customer.

* Designing tools have become inexpensive and can address ‘need for speed’. Customer satisfaction begins with right kind of tool to design and shape the right concepts:Kiran Deshmukh, COO, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd.